Featured Blu-ray and DVD Review: You Were Never Really Here
July 15, 2018
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You Were Never Really Here earned amazing reviews and earned one of the best theater averages of the year during its opening weekend. However, the film couldn’t maintain this explosive start as it expanded. It still managed $2.5 million in limited release, which is better than most limited releases manage, but that’s not enough for true mainstream success. Is there a reason the film failed to maintain its audience as it expanded? Is it simply not a mainstream movie?
Joaquin Phoenix plays Joe, who we meet having flashbacks to childhood abuse at the hands of his father. We see him clean up some mess before exiting a hotel through the fire escape, setting off the alarms. We he gets to the airport, he calls his boss, John McCleary, to leave a message. “It’s done.” We don’t know exactly what’s done at this point, be we did see it involved a bloody hammer.
When Joe gets back home, some kid sees him unlock his door and it spooks him. We see he lives with his elderly mother, who is struggling with age and illness. Later, Joe heads to his handler to get paid for the previous assignment and we learn why Joe was spooked by seeing that kid. It was Moises, the son of his handler, Angel. In this business, you can’t let business associates know where you live, because it is a security risk, so Joe ends his arrangement with Angel before heading to learn about his next job.
When he arrives at McCleary’s place, he gets his new job and we find out what his job is. A state senator, Albert Votto, needs help because his daughter, Nina, has run away and it’s Joe’s job to track down missing or trafficked girls. Albert Votto would go to the cops, but he’s got an upcoming campaign with the governor and doesn’t want the scandal. Also, the cops aren’t going to use a hammer like Joe will.
If this job was as simple as it sounds, there wouldn’t be a movie. However, any complications are way too deep into spoiler territory to discuss here.
You Were Never Really Here deals with subject matter that means it was never going to be a mainstream hit. It does have some real strengths, including Joaquin Phoenix’s central performance and the style the writer / director, Lynne Ramsay, imparted into the movie. On the other hand, both of these elements also hurt the film in ways. Joe is a man who is going through a mental breakdown, one that clearly started a long time before the movie began. Because of this, we don’t get a lot of insight into his personality to get us invested in his plight before the plot gets going. Additionally, the stylistic elements cause the plot to move at a slow pace, especially at the beginning. Some of this works, like the scenes between Joe and his mother early in the movie. They help humanize Joe and make us more likely to stick around for the film, but I’m not sure they are enough.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying You Were Never Really Here is a bad movie, far from it, and I’m glad I got a chance to see it. However, it has enough issues and the subject matter is difficult enough that I’m not sure I want to see it again.
There are no extras on the DVD / Blu-ray. I wasn’t expecting a fully-loaded Blu-ray, because limited releases are rarely fully-loaded, but I was expecting something.
You Were Never Really Here it good enough to be worth checking out, but doesn’t have enough replay value, nor does the DVD or Blu-ray have enough extras to be worth picking up. Wait till you can rent it on Video on Demand.
Video on Demand
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The Movie
The Extras
The Verdict
Filed under: Video Review, You Were Never Really Here, John Doman, Alessandro Nivola, Joaquin Phoenix, Judith Roberts, Lynne Ramsay, Frank Pando, Alex Manette, Ekaterina Samsonov, Vinicius Damasceno